Hospital beds are beds which are usually provided with specialized features to assist medical personnel in providing care for patients. A hospital bed typically comprises a patient support surface on which a patient can lie down and a plurality of barriers or siderails disposed around the patient support surface. Usually, the siderails can be lowered to allow the patient to be easily placed on the patient support surface, and then raised to prevent the patient from falling from the patient support surface or from getting out of the bed.
Unfortunately, the width of the bed is often increased when the siderails are lowered in existing beds. This may cause difficulties when displacing the bed through a room door frame or when entering/exiting an elevator with the bed.
Furthermore, the siderails, when lowered, may also create obstacles around the bed, making it harder for medical personnel to adequately interact with the patient lying on the bed or to perform maintenance of the bed. This may further make it harder for patients to enter and exit the bed.
Most siderails also include unreliable locking system for siderails and typically do not provide any indication that they are properly locked in place when raised. Siderails could therefore be inadvertently left unsecured and fall unexpectedly, which may possibly lead to injuries and/or damage to the bed or cause loud noises which is indesirable in hospitals and most care facilities.
Existing siderails displacement systems may also include grooves and crevices which may make it difficult to properly clean and disinfect the bed.
Example prior art hospital beds are described in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 20120005832, 20040237195, and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,187,824, 6,253,397, 6,360,385, 7,073,220, 7,076,818, 7,107,637, 7,028,352, 7,784,125, 6,779,209, 8,104,118, 6,938,289, 8,387,179, 7,712,167, 6,640,360, 7,472,439.